yes, it's pretty.

yes, it's calming...except when you stop and realize that it's OCTOBER and there are still LEAVES ON THE TREES! i know, i'm yelling...but i'm just not ready for it yet. however...i can't let on how annoyed i am when the kids are so excited at the sight of the first snow of the year.

adam enjoyed his secod cup of hot cocoa ever:

and the sound of rowan's voice over the monitor this morning was priceless. kenny and i were drinking our coffee at the kitchen table going over the day's events when we heard the boys sturring in their room (yes, we still use a monitor). then, a loud, excited whisper: "SNOW!...SNOW!" and then they stumbled downstairs planning out the morning with snowman-making and running through the flakes. i don't want to spoil their fun, but...it's OCTOBER!

they did have fun...making snow angels and rolling up a big snowball. the snow was heavy and wet - perfect for snowballs. there was a good amount of wasted time running up to the attic searching for snow clothes. we hadn't gotten them out and laundered them just yet. i guess that's what happens when it snows in OCTOBER!!!

/rant.

:)

more pictures as we progress....

kenny and i have fairly different tastes in interior design. i am a big fan of stark, early american colonial, while kenny would love a big ornate victorian interior house. we decided to take one room each, so the dining room is my baby, while the living room is his. we're trying very hard to bring the two designs to a level of...shall we say...compromise, or compatibility. but i must admit, i'm a little afraid that our personalities won't budge, and we're going to end up with two rooms that are completely different. kind of like this:

i think the second picture feels warmer and more inviting, while the first one is too busy. kenny holds the opposite opinion. and this is what we have to work with. okay...just kidding. we're not that over-the-top as we have a budget and a young family to inhabit these rooms.

fortunately, we agree completely on the flooring: wide plank red oak. we found a local mill and will be ordering that soon.

wall paint: we both agree that deep red with bright white trim is the way to go in the living room (right now the trim is beige and the walls are "light beige" - very boring). the dining room currently is painted in the same colors as the living room (boring!). i can't decide color in the dining room as a chair rail is in place, and i don't know whether to paint the chair rail and the wall below the chair rail the same color (leaning towards that), or paint the chair rail and all the trim the same color, and the wall above and below the chair rail a different color. regardless, we're going with a mustard yellow and light brown theme as our furniture is black, and this goes with a "shaker-ish" look that i adore for dining rooms.

furniture: we were smart and bought our dining room set two years ago - when we didn't have immediate plans to renovate these rooms. so we really only have to get furniture for the living room. right now, we have an oversized, very uncomfortable, stained and ripped-up couch (the cats rip apart our furniture), an old, olive green $7.00 yard sale wing-back chair that is just about to collapse, and my beloved glider. the glider/ottoman is the only thing that's staying. we used to have a baby grand piano in the room until we gave it to our neighbors a few weeks ago (who, we hear, are enjoying it very much!). so that leaves a big room with a glider/ottoman. i think we'll have to remove the glider/ottoman to our bedroom as it's not victorian-enough in design. kenny thinks a few arm chairs and a few love seats will suffice for the room. i actually agree.

area rugs: there will be no rugs in the dining room. i repeat: NO RUGS WHERE THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF FOOD SPILLAGE! we might think about a victorian-style area rug for the middle of the living room floor. but who wants to cover up all that beautiful red oak?

i promise to post before and after shots. wish us luck as we...begin.

since we're finishing off the moon unit in school, it was a great coincidence that the moon was visible in the evening sunlight. rowan identified it as a "half moon, not a crescent" and we watched it move from one side of the roof to another as we campfired.

we roasted marshmallows and sipped hot cocoa from a thermos; we got cocoa-messy and marshamallow-sticky; we played with sticks and took a walk in our woods to find "skunk holes" and abandoned birds nests.